As a lifelong lover of words, I believe in their power to communicate profound truths when used with careful intention. Stories, novels, essays ..
. however used, and in whatever format, words can change the reader and the world, for better or for worse. Poems, in particular, have a remarkable way of speaking to the human heart.
In the hands of a skillful poet, readers can find deep insight into the joys, trials and tragedies of their lives. Few poets have been better at this than the late Mary Oliver. Oliver was a genius at using nature-based metaphors to communicate her experience of being human.
By quietly observing and reflecting on nature in its vast and complicated, yet intelligent beauty, Oliver was able to key in on common realities in life. In one of her most famous poems, “Wild Geese,” Oliver speaks to the human tendency to feel the need to prove something to others, to meet certain criteria to have one’s existence validated, to having the feeling of never being enough, no matter how hard one tries. She begins: You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. When I was a child, it was customary at St.
Stephen’s Church in Streator on Good Friday to walk on one’s knees from the crucifix in front of the altar to the tomb where Jesus lay, in the entrance on the east side of the church. The entire experience was intended to be.